174 SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



Unicorn a star in the left fore-foot, which is resolved at first into two ; but one of 

 these, on minute inspection, is found to be double. Herschel, who 

 discovered this triplicate in 1781, pronounced it one of the most 

 beautiful sights in the heavens. Cancri, apparently a single 

 star of the sixth magnitude, is another example of a ternary 

 system, separating into three of unequal size. Libras is also treble, 

 as well as y Andromedas, if/ Cassiopeias, and 12 Lyncis. Eleven sets 

 of bright triple stars, conjunctions of three bodies, are specified by 

 Struve, in a very small space of the heavens. 



Combinations of four stars, constituting a quadruple scheme, 



composed of two double, have also been detected, ft Lyras, ?r 2 Canis Majoris, 8 Lacertae, 

 and e Lyras are examples. The latter object the naked eye discerns as a star of the 

 fourth magnitude, about 1-J from Yega, upon the frame of the 

 Lyre. With slight instrumental aid it separates readily into 

 two well-defined stars, distinctly apart, and each of these two 

 becomes binary under a higher power. There are still more 

 extraordinary combinations than the preceding, or quintuple 

 and sextuple stars. Thus 6 Orionis, the trapezium, in the 

 nebula, the first object upon which Herschel turned his mighty 

 telescope, appears as a star of the third magnitude to the 



naked eye. It was so classed by Ptolemy and Tycho Brahe, but has long been known 

 to be quadruple. Struve has however announced it to be quintuple, that is, when 

 thoroughly examined, it consists of five constituent bodies so closely wedged as to appear 

 an individual object. 



The phenomena of the multiple stars have already led to some interesting results. The 

 Newtonian law of gravitation has by their means been opened to our view, operating in 

 the far distant realms of the universe. When these proximate bodies were first disco- 

 vered, it was not suspected that any physical connexion subsisted between them any 

 real contiguity. The proximity was supposed to^ be simply optical. It was imagined, 

 that one star lying at a remote distance behind another, and seen in nearly the same visual 

 line, produced the appearance of a double star, as described in the diagram. In some 

 instances this is undoubtedly the case; and, while the prevalence of the 

 binary arrangement was limited to a few specimens, the solution was satisfac- 

 tory. But the heavens are so thickly sprinkled with double stars, as to render 

 it in the highest degree improbable that their occurrence is merely the acci- 

 dental effect of two stars separated by a wide interval, lying out in space in 

 the same direction. The argument adopted has been illustrated in the follow- 

 ing manner. If we suppose a number of peas to be thrown at random on a 

 chess-board, we should certainly expect to find them occupying irregular or 

 random positions. If, contrary to this, they were, in far more than average 

 numbers, found to be arranged in pairs on each square, the rational inference 

 would be, that here there was no random scattering. The excessive preva- 

 lence of the binary arrangement would indicate forethought, design, and 

 system. 



This is the reasoning of Dr. Nichol, the force of which is obvious. Hence, 

 when we find between the pole and 15 south of the equator, 653 cases of 

 conjunction, in which the bodies are not separated by the finest telescope 

 from each other by more than the apparent diameter of Jupiter, and 612 cases 

 of a lesser star associated with a greater, we are led to infer the real and 

 designed proximity of these bodies. The principle now adverted to, led Herschel to 



